How long have you been growing tea?
More than 30 years.
What got you started in the Tea industry?
Hangzhou is a beautiful place with mountain and water, which is a suitable for
tea growing. I love the place and I love tea. So I work for tea. Our tea
garden is a state-owned when I began to work 30 years ago.
Can you describe a typical day out in the field. How many hours would that
be?
I go to the tea garden at 7 am every morning. First I will do some weeding and
loosing the soil. I stop at about 11 am. The weeds can be easily withered and
cannot be survival after weeding. Then I will have lunch and take a nap for one
hour. In the afternoon I will check the tools to see if needing repairing. And
then I will do some fertilization and pruning. Pruning can make the tea leaves
to grow up easily. Besides, it can help us to pick up tea leaves easily as
well. The above is what I do during leisure time. Normally I will work in the
tea garden for 9-10 hours a day. If the tea season is coming, I will be very
busy to make teas the whole day. I must finish making the tea leaves picked at
the same day, no matter how late is. Otherise the tea leaves are useless and
waste.
What is your favorite part of growing tea? What inspires you to keep going?
It is a hard work in any part of tea growing and tea making. The most favorite
part for me is the picking and frying. It is not the question of how much I
earn, but I can calculate the result of the whole year hard working. I can know
if I do a good job or not duing one year. Besides Frying is very important for
lung jing too. Experience can make a good tea. Different persons can frying
different teas with the same tea leaves.
Conversely, what is the hardest part of your job?
The hardest part is the weather. Our job is depending on the weather. For
example, when the buds come out in spring, it will hurt the buds if it rains for
several days. If suddenly sunrise after several days raining, the buds will be
charred and damaged. As a result, it will reduce the quantity. Another example
is we can not picking if it is raining during the picking season when the buds
are in the best situation. If picking after the rain, the buds will be bigger
which we will have to lower down the grade. This is very difficult because
nobody can control it.
How has tea farming changed over the years?
The main change is the using of pesticide. Before we can use pesticide according
to the insects while now it is not possible to use casually. Because nowadays
people are taking more care of their health. We can only use a little allowed by
the country if the disaster of insects are serious. Besides, when we using
pesticide, we must add water to make it lighter to avoid the pesiticide residue.
Now we will feed some chicken to face the insects. Or catching insects by
ourselves. Another change is the frying. Before we use firewood to fry the tea.
After some time we use electricity. Now we use dedicated frying machine. Which
can make faster. But we must control the tempreture and time whatever way we
use.
What do you think makes your tea more unique or better than others?
Our teas are good because our circumstance is nice here. It is always foggy in
the tea garden. Which can make the tea growing season longer. As a result, the
teas are richer in taste and better in quality. On the other hand, we have long
time experience in making teas. So we can keep the quality.
What makes the difference between a successful and unsuccessful harvest?
First the management of the tea garden is very imprtant. For example, is the
weeding clean? Is the fertilizer enough? How is the condition of watering?
Besides the control of insects disaster and the shape of cutting tea trees are
all very important for the growing of teas. Second the weather is very important
as what we talked as above. Which has become the most important at present.
Do you exchange growing secrets with other local farmers?
Yes. Because every persons has his own experience and inadequate. If we can
share the experience all the tea gardens can make better harvest. Otherwise it
is neither good for the tea garden nor for the farmers.
Are there any tips you can give on how to best brew your tea?
Here is my own experience. First of all, the water is very important. The best
is minieral water. It can make the tea brewing the best. The tea is pleasant
and will get sweetness after drinking. Second, the temperture is better around
85-90 degrees. In this way, it can not only make the best aroma, but also keep
the effective material such as chlorophyll etc. Third, how much tea leaves we
should put when brewing? Put less tea leaves to those taste is lighter while put
more to those taste is stronger. This is flexible. Finally, don't soak tea
leaves too long. The longest is not more than half hour. Because some bitter
composition will come out after long soaking. Which will cause bad taste.
What is your favorite tea to drink and why?
My favorite tea is our lung jing [dragonwell]. I will taste every lot after production. In
this way, I can drink not only the taste of initial teas, but also the result of
hard working.
If you had any advice to give western tea drinkers, what would it be?
I suggest the west tea lovers buy some high quality teas with lighter taste.
Because high quality teas will contain more buds, which is good for health
because they contains more effective ingredients.
What does this project & contribution mean to you?
Money is not all for me. The most infection from the this program is the
attitude from yours. The questions are more than we have thoughts. We must
learn from you. I am touched by it.
What would be the main benefit of receiving this donation?
The biggest benefit is that it can help us to improve our tools such as bamboo
basket which for loading the teas etc.
Welcome. 
